Synopsis

On the soon-to-be demolished stage of the Weismann Theatre, a reunion is being held to honor the beautiful Weismann show and chorus girls who once performed there. The once resplendent theatre is now little but planks, scaffolding and the ghosts of the pale young showgirls who once presided over the Weismann Follies during its heyday (Prologue/Overture). As the ghosts slowly drift through the theatre, a majordomo breaks the mood as he enters with his entourage of waiters and waitresses. They pass through the spectral showgirls without seeing them.

Sally Durant Plummer, a small, blonde, “sweet-faced” 49-year old[2] former Weismann girl is the first guest to arrive, and her ghostly youthful counterpart moves towards her. Phyllis Rogers Stone, a stylish and elegant woman, even more attractive now,[2] also arrives with her handsome, authoritative and successful husband, Ben. As their younger counterparts move towards them, Phyllis comments to Ben about their past. He feigns disinterest; there is an underlying tension in their relationship.

As more guests arrive, Sally’s husband, Buddy, enters. He is a 53-year old salesman, appealing and lively [2] whose outward smiles cover much inner disappointment. Finally Mr. Weismann himself enters and greets his guests. Then Roscoe, an elderly tenor, introduces the former showgirls as he must have done many years before (“Beautiful Girls”). Former Weismann performers at the reunion include: Max and Stella Deems, who lost their radio jobs and became store owners in Miami; Solange La Fitte, who has a scent for men named after her; Hattie Walker, who has lost five younger husbands; Vincent and Vanessa, former dancers who now own an Arthur Murray franchise; Heidi Schiller, for whom Franz Lehár once wrote a waltz; and Carlotta Campion, a film star who has embraced all life has to offer and benefited from every experience.

As the guests reminisce about the past, the stories of Ben, Phyllis, Buddy and Sally unfold.

Phyllis and Sally were once roommates, while Ben and Buddy were best friends in school in New York. When Sally sees Ben, her former lover for whom she still cares deeply, she greets him self-consciously (“Don’t Look At Me”). Carlotta comments that she is tired of listening to everyone’s stories and just wants someone to listen to her. Meanwhile, Buddy and Phyllis join their spouses and the foursome reminisces about the old days of their courtship and the theatre, their memories vividly coming to life in the apparitions of their young counterparts (“Waiting For The Girls Upstairs”). Each member of the quartet is shaken by the remembrance of their past and the realization of how life has changed them.

Elsewhere, Willy Wheeler (portly, in his sixties) cartwheels for a photographer. Emily and Theodore Whitman, two ex-vaudevillians in their seventies, perform an old routine (“The Rain On The Roof”). Solange proves she is still fashionable at 66 (“Ah, Paris!”), and Hattie Walker performs her own showstopping number (“Broadway Baby”).

Sally is awed by Ben’s apparently glamorous life, but Ben wonders if he made the right choices and considers how things might have been (“The Road You Didn’t Take”). Sally tells Ben how her days have been spent since she left the Follies, desperately trying to convince him (and herself) that her marriage to Buddy keeps life from being mundane (“In Buddy’s Eyes”). But it is clear that Sally is still in love with Ben – even though she was terribly hurt when Ben chose to marry Phyllis, having used Sally for his sexual satisfaction. Sally shakes loose from the memory and begins to dance with Ben, who is touched by the memory of the Sally he once cast aside.

Phyllis interrupts this tender moment and has a biting encounter with Sally. But this confrontation is interrupted by another performance – this time, all the ex-chorines line up to perform an old number (“Who’s That Woman?”) as they are mirrored by their former, younger selves.

Afterward, Phyllis and Ben angrily discuss their lives and relationship, which has become numb and emotionless. Sally is bitter and has never been happy with Buddy, even though he has always adored her. Carlotta amuses everyone with a tale of how her dramatic solo was cut from the Follies because the audience found it humorous, but somehow the number works when she sings it today (“I’m Still Here”).

Ben confides to Sally that his life is empty. She yearns to be held by him, but young Sally slips between them and the three move together (“Too Many Mornings”). Ben, caught in the passion of memories with Sally, kisses her as Buddy enters. Buddy is furious and Ben, startled by the reality of the moment and the parallel between present and past, tells Sally it was over long ago. He goes off, leaving a dazed Sally who still dreams of a marriage that will never happen.

Buddy angrily fantasizes about the girl he should have married, who would have loved him and made him feel like “a somebody” (“The Right Girl”). He also considers his relationship with Sally, who overhears some of this and tells him that Ben has asked her to marry him. Buddy knows she must be either crazy or drunk, but he’s already supported Sally through rehab clinics and mental hospitals and cannot take any more. Meanwhile, Ben drunkenly propositions Carlotta, with whom he once had a fling. She refuses his advances, for she is presently involved with a 26-year old. Another performance is given, this time by Heidi Schiller, who is joined by her younger counterpart—the older woman’s aged voice a stark contrast against the sparkling coloratura of her younger self (“One More Kiss”).

Phyllis kisses a waiter but then confesses to him that she had always wanted a son. She eventually turns away and goes back to Ben, but tells him she cannot return to what they had. When Ben tells Phyllis he wants a divorce, she assumes the request is due to his love for Sally. Angry and hurt, Phyllis contemplates whether she will grant this request (“Could I Leave You?”). The two couples and their young counterparts argue furiously about how foolish they were when they were young.

Suddenly, at the peak of madness and confusion, the couples are engulfed by their follies, which transform the rundown theatre into a fantastical “Loveland”, an extravaganza even more grand and opulent than the gaudiest Weismann confection could ever have been: “the place where lovers are always young and beautiful, and everyone lives only for love”.[3] Sally, Phyllis, Buddy, and Ben show their “real and emotional lives” in ” a sort of group nervous breakdown.” [4]

Young Phyllis and Young Ben sing to each other their hopes for the future (“You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow”), as do Young Buddy and Young Sally (“Love Will See Us Through”). A show curtain drops and Buddy appears, dressed in “plaid baggy pants, garish jacket and a shiny derby hat”, in a vaudeville routine with an imaginary Sally and his girlfriend Margie[2] (“The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me? Blues”). Sally appears dressed as a torch singer (“Losing My Mind”), while Phyllis tells “The Story Of Lucy And Jessie”. Ben begins to offer his devil-may-care philosophy for getting through life (“Live, Laugh, Love”) but he stumbles, forgets the words, and anxiously calls to the conductor for the lyrics as he frantically tries to keep going. Ben becomes frenzied, while the chorus continues as if nothing was wrong. As the staging and music themselves begin to disintegrate into deafening discord, Ben rushes about the stage screaming at all the figures from his past; he finally collapses and cries out for Phyllis.

“Loveland” has dissolved back into the reality of the crumbling and now half-demolished theatre; dawn is approaching. Buddy escorts Sally off, while Phyllis helps Ben regain his dignity before they leave. Their ghostly younger selves, who have watched from the shadows, finally enter the light. The younger men softly call to their “girls upstairs”, and the Follies finally end.

[edit] Songs

Beautiful Girls – Roscoe and Company

Don’t Look at Me – Sally and Ben

Waiting for the Girls Upstairs – Ben, Sally, Phyllis and Buddy, with Young Ben, Young Sally, Young Phyllis and Young Buddy

Rain on the Roof – Emily and Theodore

Ah, Paris! – Solange

Broadway Baby – Hattie

The Road You Didn’t Take – Ben

Bolero d’Amour – Danced by Vincent and Vanessa; omitted from some productions

In Buddy’s Eyes – Sally

Who’s That Woman? – Stella and Company

I’m Still Here – Carlotta

Too Many Mornings – Ben and Sally

The Right Girl – Buddy

One More Kiss – Heidi and Young Heidi

Could I Leave You? – Phyllis

Loveland – Company

You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow / Love Will See Us Through – Young Ben, Young Sally, Young Phyllis and Young Buddy

The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues – Buddy

Losing My Mind – Sally

The Story of Lucy and Jessie ≠ – Phyllis

Live, Laugh, Love – Ben

Finale – Company; varies by production, often a reprise of “Beautiful Girls”

≠ Some productions substitute “Ah, But Underneath”

Songs cut include: “All Things Bright and Beautiful” (used in the prologue), “Can That Boy Foxtrot!” and “Uptown Downtown”. The musical numbers “Ah, But Underneath” (replacing “The Story Of Lucy And Jessie”), “Country House”, “Make the Most of Your Music” (replacing “Live, Laugh, Love”), “Social Dancing” and a new version of “Loveland” have been incorporated into various productions. Major changes were made for the original production in London, which attempted to establish a lighter tone and favored a happier ending than the original. The most recent productions in New York have reverted to some of the original narrative points.

 

Synopsis from Wikipedia